|
|
A Different Picture Of Heart Disease
Author: By: Ng Peng Hock
In Feb 2006, researchers reported that many women suffer from a fundamentally
different heart disease from men and is easily missed from standard tests.
Moreover, women do not seek treatment as early as men, and women's hearts are
smaller and their blood vessels are more easily damaged. Another possible reason
is that the disease could manifest itself differently. As a result, women are
less likely to survive heart attacks than men. Many women are still unaware that
heart disease and stroke have emerged as the top killers of women
worldwide.
The researchers found that for some women, instead of
developing obvious blockages in the arteries supplying blood to the heart,
plaque are accumulated more evenly inside the major arteries and in smaller
blood vessels. In other cases, their arteries fail to expand properly or go into
spasm, often at times of physical or emotional stress. These abnormalities are
very common for younger women and these can be dangerous because they could
trigger life-threatening heart attacks.
Instead of the classic crushing
chest pain, sweating and shortness of breath, they often complain of vague
symptoms such as fatigue, an upset in stomach, or pain in the jaw or shoulders.
This certainly explain why some women suddenly have heart attacks even though
their arteries look clear and in some cases, the doctors even send them home
without treatment or refer them to psychiatrists. Even if they do get medical
treatment, these women may not benefit from the standard drugs or therapies such
as bypass surgery and angioplasty to reopen the clogged arteries. In many cases,
these women whose arteries looked clear in normal tests have a significantly
higher risk of having a heart attack or dying within four or five years. The
abnormalities could be due to the fact that hormonal or genetic differences
change how their arteries react. In America, there are as many as three million
women may suffer from these conditions.
Despite the new findings, many
women do have the same kind of heart disease as men, and they do benefit from
the same preventative measures and treatments that help men: a healthy diet and
weight; regular exercise; and a lower blood pressure and cholesterol level. It
is still unclear how best doctors can tackle such conditions, but the new
findings do provide important understanding of a major health problem, and it
also alerts both women and their doctors about the alternative manifestations of
the disease.
|
|
|
|
Print this page
